Sarcoidosis is a systemic disease of unknown aetiology characterised by the formation of noncaseating epitheloid cell granulomas, which can occur in virtually any organ. Cardiac involvement is of critical importance, due to the poor prognosis if this organ manifestation is left undiagnosed and untreated. Early initiation of therapy seems to be associated with a good prognosis; therefore, the di...

INTRODUCTION Cardiac amyloidosis is a manifestation of several systemic diseases known as amyloidoses. Arterial thromboembolic complications have not been reported to occur frequently, although the pathophysiology of cardiovascular amyloidosis would theoretically predispose to such manifestations. CASE PRESENTATION We present the case of a 52-year-old woman, who suffered from cardiac amyloido...

Levels of cardiac glycogen were determined by biochemical assays in turkey poults from an experimental flock with a known high incidence of round heart disease. Levels of cardiac glycogen were significantly higher (p < .05) than in commercial turkeys, but not significantly different in the turkeys that developed spontaneous round heart disease. The high level of cardiac glycogen in the poults o...

Dengue fever (DF) is an outbreak prone viral disease transmitted by aedes mosquitoes. It is often associated with evidence of plasma leakage due to increased vascular permeability manifested by pleural effusion, ascites, hypoproteinaemia and pericardial effusion. Cases of small pericardial effusion have been reported in association with dengue fever, largely with dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF)...

Neonatal lupus erythematosus is a rare, passively acquired autoimmune disease, caused by maternal autoantibodies. The most common manifestations are skin rash and congenital heart block. Cutaneous manifestations may be present at birth, but often develop within a few weeks after delivery. Congenital heart block may present as bradycardia in utero or during physical examination at birth. Approxi...

With interest we read the article by Demily et al. about a 30 year old male with neuropathy, ataxia, and retinitis pigmentosa (NARP) syndrome due to the mutation m.8993TNC, clinically manifesting as cerebellar ataxia, pyramidal syndrome, and psychosis [1]. Upon antipsychotic medication the patient developed dystonia, akathisia, and extrapyramidal symptoms with falls [1]. Switching to clozapine ...

Cerebral infarcts are the third most common cause of death in Spain and the leading cause of physical disability in adults. Twenty-five per cent of all strokes occur in people younger than 65. Cardiac tumours are a very rare disease with an incidence that ranges from 0.001% to 0.28% in post-mortem studies. Half of such tumours are of myxomatous origin. They are an infrequent cause of cerebral e...

An abrupt elevation in aminotransferases without clear etiology may be attributed to hypoxic hepatitis. Underlying cardiac dysfunction, an important clinical clue, is often overlooked as a cause of hypoxic hepatitis, and understanding the interdependence of the heart and liver is crucial in making this diagnosis. Causes of cardiac dysfunction may include any of many different diagnoses; infiltr...

Cardiac metastases are rare, but more common than primary cardiac tumours, and metastatic melanoma involves heart or pericardium in greater than 50% of the cases, although cardiac metastasis are rarely diagnosed ante mortem because of the lack of symptoms. A multimodality approach may help to obtain a more timely diagnosis and in some cases a quicker and better diagnosis can enable a surgical r...

To the Editor:—Studies that use propensity analysis, like the study of Vincent et al., should not be perceived to be inferior to the gold standard of prospective randomized studies. Rather, propensity analysis and prospective randomized studies should be interpreted as complementary methods for finding the truth. Despite Nuttall and Houle’s assertion that randomized controlled studies, unlike p...